A wideband balanced AlGaN/GaN HEMT MMIC low noise amplifier for transceiver front-ends

摘要

A 3-16 GHz wideband AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) low noise amplifier (LNA), using balanced configuration with a coplanar waveguide (CPW) Lange coupler, is designed and fabricated. The LNA shows a minimum noise figure of 4 dB with associated gain of 20 dB and gain flatness of +/- 3 dB across the 3-16 GHz frequency range. This balanced GaN LNA is suitable for transceiver front-ends due to the low input/output VSWR, high stability and redundancy, as well as, high power handling capability of GaN HEMTs. The design, fabrication and characterization results of the GaN HEMT balanced amplifier are described together with the details of design and characteristics of the individual LNAs and the CPW coupler.